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These spectacular ashtrays were first invested on the Queen Mary liner, so can be dated reliably to around 1934-39. The quality looks superb, as does the cutting. But can anyone hazard a guess on the maker? Stourbridge?

Sklounion

Hi David,I would suggest that Charlotte may want to have a look at the Cunard White Star Lines Archives, which are held by the Harold Cohen Library, in Liverpool.They are very detailed and there may well be information regarding these ashtrays still in the archives.As to the date, one may need to be cautious. They could, as you say, date to the five years before the ship was converted to serve as a troopship in the Far East, but could just as easily date to a post-war refit. The QM, was launched in 1934, but fitting-out took the best part of two years, only making her maiden voyage in 1936. If these are from that original period, then design and supply of the ashtrays is a three year period from 1934 -1936. It is unlikely that they were ordered before that, as the ship very nearly remained uncompleted, but for goverment intervention.Regards,Marcus

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Sklounion

Hi David, just to make one futher point, these are likely to be of UK manufacture, for the first or second class passengers.The massive subsidy given to Cunard to complete this ship along with the Queen Elizabeth, would have made out-sourcing extremely unlikely.Regards,Marcus

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Sklounion

Hi David,The major problem may be that the ashtrays are unlikely to carry a makers mark, as that would interfere with the shipping companies emblem or logo. What I would suggest is that there are several potential makers, and interestingly probably two candidates as designers, Keith Murray, and R.Y Goodden. Murray is known to have designed glassware for the Orient Lines "Orion" of 1935, a ground-breaking example of modern interior design for the maritime environment, designed by Colin Skelton Anderson (later knighted) and his highly-talented chief designer, the New Zealand architect Brian O'Rorke.If designed by Murray, and I have enquiries out, then Stevens and Williams is one possible manufacturer.Regards,Marcus

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David â€” See the topic on John Stonier & Co., recently updated, here.

Stoniers were certainly long-established principal wholesalers to the shipping lines, and, had not the previous discussion taken place, the most obvious source to me for the Queen Mary ashtrays.

It is fairly easy for Charlotte to check. All she needs is The Complete Factory Pattern Books of Stuart & Sons, privately published in three volumes by Mervyn Gulliver. I think Liverpool Museums could easily justify the expense of a set because of the Stonier connection. If she is interested, please ask her to email me â€” I will be happy to forward her request for details to Mervyn.

Why the apparent and mysterious reluctance of British museum staff to post queries and contributions on the GMB? We are not that intimidating, are we?

Bernard C.

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Sklounion

Thank you for the Stonier contribution, Bernard. Clearly if the ash-trays, with or without marks, appear in the Stuart catalogues, then all can be squared away very quickly. Part of my reasoning with these being specific to the ship, rather than a generic, off the shelf item, was that the Queen Mary was the first civilian liner to have carried the name of a sovereign or his spouse, previously a privilege retained for vessels of the Royal Navy. That, combined with a realisation that the vessels could serve as shop-windows for the best of British manufacturing and design of the period, was arguably a major shift from the previously followed international liner decorative style, often known as "Hamburg-Amerika", but obviously not exclusive to vessels of that line.Regards,Marcus

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